


my best friend's girl

by lilydaydreams



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Canon Queer Character, Canon Queer Relationship, Crack, Crack Treated Seriously, F/F, Fluff, Fluff and Crack, Friends to Lovers, Gen, Idiots in Love, Love Triangles, Mako & Asami Sato Friendship, POV Asami Sato, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, dont get me wrong i love him though, im a lesbian and these are my emotional support disaster bisexuals thank u, its always bullying mako hours, literally no one in this fic besides opal knows how to be normal about emotions, mako belongs to the streets, rated T for brief sexual references and language
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:35:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,069
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28080033
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilydaydreams/pseuds/lilydaydreams
Summary: Asami has a hopeless crush on her best friend, Korra, who happens to be dating Asami’s ex-boyfriend, Mako. She’s aware that it’s a mess.Asami plans to repress any and all non-platonic feelings for her best friend until the end of time (It’s just good that Korra’s in a more-or-less happy relationship, right?), but when Mako freaks out over Korra’s soulmark and ends the relationship, things somehow get even messier.****“Oh,” Mako says. He toys with the edge of the scarlet scarf that he insists on perpetually wearing, despite the fact that it clashes horribly with the green apron of his coffee shop uniform. She wonders, not for the first time, whether it’s technically allowed as part of his dress code. “Is this about Korra?”“No shit, Sherlock.”He narrows his eyes suspiciously. “Asami, can I ask why, specifically, you’re here and not, well, my ex-girlfriend?”“Technically, Scarf Boy, I am also your ex-girlfriend.”
Relationships: Korra & Asami Sato, Korra & Mako (Avatar), Korra & Opal (Avatar), Korra/Asami Sato, Mako & Asami Sato, Opal & Asami Sato
Comments: 41
Kudos: 353





	my best friend's girl

**Author's Note:**

> This utterly cursed idea has been floating around in my head for a while so I finally wrote it. Mako being uncomfortably mixed up in Korra and Asami's love life simply by virtue of having dated both of them is my favorite concept.
> 
> In this AU, everyone has a soulmark that's the same shape/color as that of their soulmate and on the same location of the body. When you kiss your soulmate for the first time, the mark turns an iridescent rainbow color.
> 
> Title from "My Best Friend's Girl" by The Cars, because the lyrics remind me of both Asami and Mako thinking about Korra at different points lol

Korra sits cross-legged on her checked blue bedspread and lets out an exaggeratedly frustrated, “UGH,” flopping backwards onto the bed. 

“So do you wanna tell us why you called this ‘emergency girls’ meeting?’” Opal asks from her spot curled up in a chair in the corner of the bedroom, not finding Korra’s antics nearly as amusing or endearing as Asami does. Even so, she’s smiling, and she waits patiently for Korra to explain.

“Because she’s a drama queen,” Asami teases. 

“Shut up,” Korra says, lifting her head up a couple of inches to glare and stick out her tongue, which makes Asami giggle.

“Is it a Mako thing? I bet it’s a Mako thing,” Opal guesses, raising her eyebrows at Korra.

Korra sighs. “Guilty as charged.”

“It’s always a Mako thing,” Asami says, not sure whether she’s addressing Opal, Korra, or just the world at large

“Hey, you know what he’s like,” Korra reminds her, laughing.

Asami does, in fact, know exactly what Mako is like. She had the displeasure of dating him briefly when she was a freshman and he was a sophomore, only to be dumped after weeks of fighting and Mako’s newly acquired crush on his water polo teammate. Two years later, here Asami is, friends with both her ex-boyfriend and the aforementioned water polo teammate, Korra, who eventually became Girlfriend Number Two. That’s not to mention the fact that Asami has a hopeless, one-sided crush on Korra. She’s well aware of how messy the whole thing is.

“Unfortunately, yes,” she groans. “Don’t make me relive the bad memories.”

“Every day, you guys remind me that I ended up with the correct brother,” Opal says, sounding genuinely relieved. 

Asami is inclined to agree with her. “Every day, Korra reminds me how grateful I am that she was a homewrecker and saved me from a future with Mako.” That’s not really what happened, but she likes the indignant look Korra gets on her face every time Asami jokes about it.

“Hey!” says Korra, picking up a pillow and throwing it across the bed at Asami, who just smirks back at her. “Guyyyyyyysssss,” she says, the word drawn out. “I seriously need advice.”

Asami desperately just wants to say  _ Break up with him _ , knowing no further details about the situation, but she restrains herself. She’s probably met her quota this month for the number of times she can joke about Korra and Mako breaking up without it getting weird.

“What’s going on, Korra?” Opal asks, her voice concerned. “I thought the two of you were doing better now that you talked out…” She trails off, unable to remember what Korra and Mako’s last blowout conflict was about. In all fairness, Asami thinks, it can be hard to keep up with the particulars. “Well, whatever the last thing was about,” she finishes lamely. 

“Okay. So we’ve been taking things pretty slow because we were friends first, plus we’ve both been busy enough lately that date night’s been put on hold. So things ended up getting, well,  _ spicy _ for the first time last night—”

“Spicy?” Opal giggles. Asami is busy focusing on attempting to banish any and all mental images of her ex-boyfriend and current crush hooking up that have popped into her mind uninvited.

“I know what I said,” Korra shoots back. “Anyway, so things are getting spicy, my shirt is off, he finally figures out how a bra clasp works, whatever.” Asami must not be regulating her facial expressions as well as she thinks, because Korra turns to her abruptly. “You good, Asami? Sorry, I know this might be weird for you. I’ll try not to go into much detail.”

Asami reminds herself resolutely that Korra is her best friend first and foremost.  _ I’m a mature adult. A silly little crush should have no bearing on my ability to be a good friend to her and give her advice, even if that advice is about how to make a relationship work with my ex-boyfriend. _ “It’s not weird,” she lies, because it totally is, for more reasons than Korra could possibly be aware of. “I mean, it’s a little weird, I guess, but you and Mako are my best friends, and I just wanna support you.”

That’s the narrative she regularly tells herself, anyway, but Opal fixes her with a look that very clearly says  _ Bullshit _ .

“Thanks, ‘Sami,” Korra says, giving her a wide grin. “I appreciate you.” Asami smiles back, and they stare at each other for a moment until Opal makes a sound that seems to be halfway between a gag and clearing her throat. “Um, yeah, so basically just as things were getting interesting, Mako saw my soulmark for the first time and freaked out a little.”

“Freaked out how?” Opal asks.

“It’s Mako, so there are a lot of different modes of freak-out,” Asami says.

“He just abruptly stopped and stared at it for a little bit. The mark, I mean,” Korra explains. “Then he pulled a plug on the whole hooking up thing. And I know he was into it, because he, ‘yknow….” She trails off, and Asami is all too happy to go without clarification.

“Had an erection?” Opal supplies helpfully. “You’re an adult, Korra. You’re allowed to say it.”

This conversation is agonizing enough without further discussion of Mako’s penis, so Asami quickly jumps in before they can continue exploring that avenue. “I’m guessing he refused to talk about it at all?”

“Yeah,” says Korra woefully. “He said nothing was wrong and that he just didn’t feel like continuing right then, which is fine, of course, but he was just being so weird about it. And then he tried to put on a movie.”

“Was it  _ Die Hard _ ?” Asami asks. “Did he try to make you watch  _ Die Hard  _ again?” Korra just nods grimly and Asami rolls her eyes. She loves Mako, and appreciates the merits of a good film, but  _ God, he’s so predictable _ .

“Yikes,” Opal says, and at first Asami thinks it’s in reference to Mako’s movie taste, but she’s skipped over that entirely. “I mean, he went into this knowing that the two of you aren’t soulmates, right? Isn’t his mark kind of out in the open?”

The way the marks work, it’s a little easier to figure out who  _ isn’t _ your soulmate than to find out who is. For soulmates, the marks are in the same location of the body and look identical, but even having a similarly shaped grayish blob in the same area of your body isn’t enough to definitively confirm anything. No one knows for sure until the two people kiss, and the matching little blobs become an iridescent rainbow. Asami’s mark, similar to Korra’s, is underneath her bra, so it’s a little difficult to check for potential matches if she doesn’t want to kiss  _ and _ flash somebody on the first date.

“It’s on his bicep, yeah,” Korra says. “We’d have known if they matched. But I thought we were on the same page about this, none of that sappy fairytale shit. No offense, Opal.” 

Asami, personally, has always secretly held out hope that she’ll eventually find her soulmate, but as cynical as Korra sounds, she’s not wrong. Most people never even meet their soulmate; the mark doesn’t guarantee anything. Plenty of people, Asami’s parents included prior to her mother’s death, are able to have perfectly happy relationships even if they aren’t with their soulmates.

“No offense taken,” Opal says. “Bolin and I got lucky.” She adopts the slightly dazed, blissed out smile she gets whenever she mentions him.

“You really did,” Korra replies, nodding appreciatively.

“Imagine having it on your hand,” Asami says wistfully. “Some people just have it too easy.” It still doesn’t make it a guarantee, but it’s much easier for people to identify their soulmates when their mark is in an easily visible place. Even Opal, romantic as she is, is realistic enough to know that if Bolin hadn’t happened to see the mark on her hand across Trader Joe’s one day and asked her out on the spot, they probably never would have found each other.

“Both of you are insufferable,” Opal says, rolling her eyes, but she smiles good-naturedly. She and Bolin, as the only members of their group who have found their soulmates, are subject to a certain amount of teasing by default.

“So….” Korra says, rolling herself over on the bed to face Asami, “I have to ask. Did Mako do that same thing to you while the two of you were together? Get weird about your mark?”

“Not at all, although he definitely got a good look at it, if you know what I mean,” she tells Korra. “We never talked about it, but he didn’t seem to care. For the most part, really, he was otherwise preoccupied whenever he’d have occasion to see it.” The girls laugh at that.

“Cool, he’s irrational  _ and _ inconsistent,” Korra groans, running her fingers through her bob. “Or maybe your boobs are just so superior to mine that they managed to distract him from his angst for a moment.”

Asami allows herself a not-so-subtle glance at Korra’s chest, that she hopes will come off as friendly appreciation and not honest-to-goodness pining. “Mmmm, I’m pretty sure that’s not it.” Korra winks at her flirtatiously.

“Gross. I hate both of you,” Opal says from the corner of the room, watching their interaction. 

“I can’t believe I’m saying this, but in Mako’s defense, it hurts to be reminded mid-hookup that the person you’re with has a soulmate who isn’t you. Especially if you have deep feelings for that person. Mako was never all that serious about me, which is probably why it didn’t bother him then,” Asami muses.

“That could be it, maybe,” Opal says, but she has a pensive look on her face that says she’s not entirely convinced yet.

“I guess that makes sense,” Korra agrees. “Still hard not to take it personally.”

“Totally understandable,” Asami tells her. “I’d say just reassure Mako that you’re invested in the relationship even if the two of you aren’t soulmates. Make sure he feels secure in it and whatever.”

“Thanks, Asami. Will do.”

“For now, since we’re all here, we could have a girls night? Put on a movie or something? I’ll make popcorn,” Asami offers. “Unless you want some time alone, Korra.”

“That sounds amazing. I think that’s exactly what I need right now,” Korra says.

“I think I’m going to head home,” Opal tells them casually. “I told Bolin I’d make dinner.”

Korra goes to find a movie on Netflix while Asami raids her cupboard for snacks and starts popping some popcorn in the microwave. Opal finds Asami in the kitchen, giving her a quick hug goodbye. “You might wanna stop giving relationship tips to the girl you’re in love with,” Opal whispers, and Asami shushes her and gives her a halfhearted shove. 

Korra and Asami spend the rest of the night binge-watching early 00’s rom coms, curled up on opposite sides of Korra’s beat up couch. It’s relaxing, to finally have some quality time just between the two of them, even if Asami has to constantly push down all her non-platonic thoughts that arise about how good Korra’s arms look in her muscle tank.

Asami thinks, not for the first time that week or even that day, about whether Korra is straight. There’s some tenuous evidence to the contrary: Korra has the stereotypical Bisexual Haircut, the shaggy bob with bangs that a disproportionately large number of bisexual women seem to get; she’s always seemed kind of fixated on her water polo coach, Kya, who is an older lesbian and one of the only older gay people any of them have ever met; she watched  _ But I’m A Cheerleader _ with Asami that time and seemed to enjoy it; and the music she listens to doesn’t exactly radiate heterosexual energy. Then again, Asami  _ doesn’t _ have the Bisexual Haircut, so stereotypes aren’t always true, and maybe Korra just has good taste. 

She knows she could go in circles for hours with this line of “reasoning,” but ultimately, it doesn’t even matter. Korra and Mako are together, and they’re not perfect, but their relationship seems to make Korra happy most of the time. And at the end of the day, all Asami really wants is for Korra to be happy.

* * *

**Korra 4:31 PM**

haha guess who just got dumped!

**Korra 4:31 PM**

(it’s me)

**Korra 4:31 PM**

he broke up w/ me sami

**Asami 4:33 PM**

he did what?????

**Korra 4:34 PM**

lol i was gonna try to talk to scarf boy abt the thing and communicate and whatever and he just ended things and said its better for us to just be friends

**Asami 4:37 PM**

he didn’t even give you a reason? thats messed up

**Asami 4:38 PM**

come over here. i have a pint of ben and jerrys w your name on it and we can listen to taylor swift and cry and talk shit

**Korra 4:39 PM**

ok

**Korra 4:39 PM**

b over soon

* * *

Asami doesn’t like the rush of complicated emotions that flood her when Korra texts that she and Mako have broken up. There’s righteous anger, of course, to be expected when someone hurts her best friend. There’s sadness and disappointment for Korra—there were times when she and Mako seemed to truly make each other happy, and Asami was never so selfish as to begrudge her friends that. 

At the same time, she feels a burst of sick joy at the news and immediately represses it.  _ What kind of monster am I to be happy that two of my best friends are going through a breakup? _ She reasons that she can allow herself a tiny bit of happiness, on the basis that she’ll get to spend more time with Korra (as friends, of course).

There’s also some confusion: Mako’s an idiot, but she never thought he was dumb enough to break up with Korra.  _ Does he have any idea how lucky he was to have her in the first place? _ Asami just can’t fathom what could possibly be going through his mind. It almost seems like at any moment, he’ll come to his senses and beg for her forgiveness and they’ll get back together. All the more reason not to get her hopes up, if she dared hope for anything.

She preheats her oven and gets out a box of brownie mix. Korra will be here soon, likely an emotional wreck, and it’s Asami’s job to pick up the pieces, do anything to show her that she’s still cared for.

* * *

The next afternoon, Asami walks into Omashu Coffee, internally patting herself on the back for committing all of her friends’ work and school schedules to memory. It comes in handy sometimes. As expected, Mako is on his shift, dressed in his stupid little apron and looking far too nonchalant for someone who just broke up with his girlfriend. Asami’s complicated feelings about Korra and Mako’s breakup haven’t quite dissipated yet, so she’s found herself with no other option than to channel it all into rage at Mako’s idiocy and callousness.

Maybe it’s her murderous facial expression, maybe it’s the vibes radiated by her all black and scarlet clothing and Docs, but Mako’s coworkers seem to shrink away behind the counter as they spot her. Mako, who is busy pouring a latte into one of the shop’s paper cups, finally looks up at her. “Oh, hey, Asami,” he says nervously, managing a smile that comes out as more of a grimace. “What’s up? Did you want a coffee?”

She steps forward menacingly and Mako takes half a step back behind the counter. “ _ What’s up? _ You’re seriously asking me what’s up?”

Mako’s cheeks tinge pink and he puts the latte down, scratching the back of his neck and refusing to meet her eyes. “Okay, um, can this wait about two and a half minutes while I clock out for a break, and then maybe we can go outside to chat?”

“Fine,” she agrees, crossing her arms, as much as she’d like the pleasure of yelling at Mako in front of all of his coworkers.

A few minutes later, they’re outside in the back alley of the coffee shop. “Well? What the hell do you have to say for yourself?” Asami asks indignantly, hands on her hips, fixing him with her patented Scary Intimidation Face.

Mako looks more puzzled than scared. “Oh,” he says. He toys with the edge of the scarlet scarf that he insists on perpetually wearing, despite the fact that it clashes horribly with the green apron of his coffee shop uniform. She wonders, not for the first time, whether it’s technically allowed as part of his dress code. “Is this about Korra?”

“No shit, Sherlock.”

He narrows his eyes suspiciously. “Asami, can I ask why, specifically,  _ you’re _ here and not, well, my ex-girlfriend?”

“Technically, Scarf Boy, I am also your ex-girlfriend.”

Mako mutters something under his breath that she can’t quite catch, kicking at a pebble on the ground in frustration. “‘Sami, you know what I meant. This is between me and Korra.”

“It’s really not between just you and Korra anymore when Korra has been at  _ my _ apartment for the past twenty-four hours sobbing and bingeing ice cream and lamenting how she doesn’t even know what she did wrong, why you ended things out of the blue,” Asami informs him sharply.  _ I’m concerned for my friend _ , she tells herself, thinking about what a wreck Korra still seemed to be when she passed out on Asami’s couch for a quick nap that afternoon.  _ I’m doing what any good best friend would do _ .

“It’s not that simple,” says Mako.

“Isn’t it? You had something with Korra and you ruined it just because you could,” she says, the words bitter.  _ If I had a chance with Korra, I’d never screw it up like that _ , the little voice in her head adds, and she ignores it. “You hurt my best friend,” she forces herself to continue, because Korra is just her friend and that’s all they’ll ever be. “Why?”

“Please just trust me that I’m doing what I think is best,” Mako says, his gaze level with hers, tone even. Normally, she’d give him props for refusing to yield to her Scary Intimidation Face, but right now, it irritates her that he seems to be so calm and unaffected by all of this.

“Oh, well what  _ you _ think is best has always been the right course of action,” she spits out at him in disgust. “Fuck you, Mako.” With that, she stalks off, without allowing him to get in another word. She knows that if she keeps talking to him much longer, she’ll lose control and say something too revealing.

* * *

Korra, Asami, and Mako reach a tentative peace in the weeks that follow. Asami gives a half-assed apology to Mako for embarrassing him at work, but not for chewing him out. Korra and Mako reluctantly and politely interact in group settings but don’t talk amongst themselves. Asami takes care of Korra when she needs it, bringing her snacks and tissues when she’s sad and providing a shoulder to cry on. 

Things are almost back to normal one Friday night when Korra and Asami attend group game night together. They wait to be let into Opal and Bolin’s apartment, Asami admiring out of the corner of her eye how Korra still manages to look stunning in just a sweatshirt and joggers.

When Opal and Bolin open the door to their apartment, Asami watches Korra’s eyes dart around the living room and realizes with a pang who she’s looking for. Her suspicions are confirmed when Korra visibly deflates upon realizing that Mako isn’t there. “He said no to coming to game night again, huh?”

“Yeah,” Bolin says. “He’s being so weird lately. Weirder than usual.”

Korra sighs. “I just wish he’d talk to me. We might not be together anymore, but I still wanna be his friend, you know?”

“I feel like I might’ve made things worse by interfering,” Asami jumps in. “It wasn’t my business, and I’m afraid that what I said just made him shut down even more.”

“He was probably gonna shut me out regardless,” Korra says glumly.

“And he definitely deserved somebody yelling at him,” Opal reassures Asami.

Bolin sways on his feet a little and looks at them incredulously. Asami realizes he must have pregamed a little already. “You’re all being such downers,” he slurs at them. “Forget my lame, socially stunted, impossible brother. This is a fun night for us!”

“You’re right,” Korra says, grinning. “What kinds of alcohol do you have?”

Bolin starts listing the options and leads her into the kitchen, where the two of them will undoubtedly be doing shots in just a moment. Asami and Opal stay behind and settle on the couch.

“Has Mako talked to you and Bolin at all?” Asami asks. She knows she shouldn’t keep getting involved, but there’s something about this whole situation that makes her feel like things aren’t adding up.

“Yeah, but if you’re wondering what the hell is going on inside his brain, we don’t know either,” Opal says, rolling her eyes.

“What do you mean?”

“Like, there’s been all the requisite angst, but we just haven’t been able to get past all this vague bullshit about ‘blah blah blah Korra and I just aren’t meant to be together.’ One time he was over here and he got really drunk and started going on about how he ‘knows too much’ but we have no clue what that’s supposed to mean.”

“So weird,” Asami murmurs, and changes the subject to Opal’s classes this semester. She types out a quick text to Mako.

**Asami 7:48 PM**

you can’t avoid game night forever mako

He doesn’t respond and she tucks her phone away in her pocket, accepting a glass of wine when Opal offers and fondly watching Korra and Bolin and their drunken antics. Hours later, she’s absolutely annihilated the group at a game of monopoly despite being very tipsy herself, and she feels the buzz of her phone.

**Mako 10:56 PM**

i need to talk to you as soon as possible

Receiving that kind of message from anybody else would stress her out, leading her into a spiral of speculation as to what that could possibly mean, but it’s Mako. He’s this serious about everything. She shakes her head, types a quick message back, and slips her phone back into her pocket.

* * *

“Asami, I need to tell you something,” Mako says as soon as she lets him into her apartment.

“Okay,” she agrees, having already gleaned that from the text he sent her the previous night. She gestures over to her kitchen table and he sits down. “I’m all ears. I’ll make tea while you tell me whatever it is.”

“I think I know who Korra’s soulmate is,” Mako tells her solemnly, as she turns on the tea kettle and grabs them both mugs. “I’m not completely positive, so I wasn’t sure whether to say something, but I think I’ve seen a matching soulmark. That’s why I had to end things.”

“Okay….?” Asami says, mildly confused and cursing herself for ever getting involved in this mess in the first place. “Wait, Korra’s soulmark is, well, y’know, right?” She hopes her cheeks aren’t flushing, and turns away from Mako so he can’t see her face.

“Yeah,” Mako confirms.

“Let me guess. It’s some guy you’ve met before and seen shirtless in a mildly homoerotic sports context?”

“Very funny,” Mako says flatly.. “No, it’s a woman, actually.” She brings over his tea and sits herself down across the kitchen table from him, and he looks at her expectantly as if waiting for her to understand something.

_ Korra’s soulmate is a woman _ . That answers her long-standing question of ‘Is Korra straight?’ but she doesn’t have time to ruminate on that right now. “Is that why you’re being weird about all this?” She asks him. “God, Mako, if you’re on some homophobic bullshit—”

“No. No, of course it’s not that,” Mako assures her, which is a relief because she really doesn’t have the energy to chew him out right now.

“Well, if it’s a girl, and you’ve seen her mark, and it’s in the same place as Korra’s, that doesn’t really narrow it down, Mako,” she jokes. “You belong to the streets.” He just glares back at her and she rolls her eyes. “Fine, I guess it narrows it down a little bit. What, am I supposed to play twenty questions with you?”

“Use that engineering brain of yours, Asami.”

“Hmm,” she muses, running through her mental catalogue of Mako’s dating history and drumming her fingers on the table. “Well, there’s that girl you hooked up with at that frat party a week after we broke up—”

“Didn’t see her mark,” he says, cutting her off. “It was dark at the time.”

“That girl who worked at the sandwich shop across the street from your work who you went out with for a bit?”

“Nope.”

“That hot statistics TA you had a crush on last year?”

“Never even got a date with her,” Mako says ruefully.

“You’re just playing games now,” she says, reaching across the table to swat him on the arm.

“I wasn’t planning to, but you’re so dumb for such a smart person that I almost have to at this point.” He doesn’t elaborate further, just takes a long sip of his tea and continues to stare at her pointedly.

“Huh, you’ve been getting around more than we thought, Mako. Unless you somehow saw someone’s boobs in a non-sexual context. Wait, was it someone in porn?”

“No!” Mako says immediately, tone defensive. 

She shakes her head and takes a sip of her tea, considering. “Okay, then I’m drawing a blank. The only other girl I know of that you’ve hooked up with is me.” He stares at her, unblinking, and the realization finally dawns on her. “Oh my god, are you serious?”

“I couldn’t come up with something this distressing on my own,” he declares grimly.

Asami lets out a shocked burst of laughter. “So that’s why you were so weird that time you were hooking up with Korra...you recognized her soulmark from  _ me _ .”

“It definitely looks similar,” he says. “Also, how do you know about that?”

“Of course I know about that, idiot,” she tells him, laughing again. “You think we don’t talk about you all the time when you’re not there?” Somehow, the look of horror on his face deepens. She’d love to make fun of him further, but there are  _ way _ more important topics at hand. “So this means...Korra’s my soulmate.”

It’s Mako’s turn to roll his eyes as he finishes the last of his cup of tea and leans back in the chair. “Yeah, that was the point of this conversation. I think she is, anyway.”

“Why didn’t you say something before?” She asks him. Her tone is soft, understanding, because she already kind of gets it.

“I’m still not completely sure. I think I recognize it, but only the two of you can figure that out. But it’s messy. Things were already complicated between the three of us,” he explains.

She can’t argue with that. “I guess so, yeah.”

“So, um, how do you feel?” The words come out stilted, awkward.

“Mako’s asking me about my feelings? Sounds fake,” she jokes, but accompanies it with a smile to let him know she appreciates it.

“I’m trying,” he says, giving her a reluctant smile back. 

Asami thinks for a long time, still processing what exactly it is she’s thinking and feeling about all of this. It’s certainly not the pure elation of someone who’s just been told that she’s meant to be with the person she’s been crushing on for ages, and she tries to put her finger on why. “I’m afraid to believe it,” she says. “What if it’s not true, and after all this time, it’s just a false alarm?” 

“You already love her, don’t you,” Mako says. It’s not a question.

“She’s my best friend, and she’s beautiful and determined and witty and interesting. She lights up every room she’s in. How couldn’t I love her?”

Mako sighs, giving her a sad smile that doesn’t quite reach his eyes. “I guess these things work out how they’re supposed to.”

“Are you okay?” She asks him. As much as she wants to be unambiguously happy and excited, she knows that Mako truly does, or did at one point, love Korra, even if things ended between them.

“Yeah, I’m alright,” he says, and it’s not completely convincing. “I’m just still getting used to the idea that my ex-girlfriends are probably soulmates. But the two of you are my friends, and I’m happy for you first and foremost.”

“Thanks, Mako,” she says, truly appreciating the sentiment.

“I think it’s time for you to find Korra and talk to her,” he advises, standing up from his chair.

“I guess it is,” she agrees. She gives him a long hug before he heads out, hoping she can convey how much she cares, how she and Korra will always support him as their friend.

* * *

Asami takes a walk to clear her head, think over what she’s feeling. Vaguely, she realizes she’s making her way to Korra’s house without texting first; she figures that if she chickens out and decides not to talk to Korra today, she can just head home with no one the wiser.

She reaches Korra’s house and rings the doorbell, hoping that Korra, and not one of the water polo teammates she lives with, will answer. Sure enough, she does, her eyes bleary and looking like she just rolled out of bed despite the fact that it’s early afternoon. She gives Asami’s outfit a onceover, surveying the pleated skirt, boots, and blouse that Asami put on that morning, and looks down awkwardly at her own oversized tee and bike shorts. Asami smooths her skirt with her fingertips self-consciously.

“Asami, you’re here,” Korra finally says, confused. “Were we, uh, supposed to meet up? Did we make plans last night when I was drunk that I forgot about?”

“We didn’t,” Asami says, laughing and trying to sound lighter than she feels. “I’m sorry for dropping in on you unannounced. I just really needed to talk to you. I hope that’s okay.”

“Of course,” Korra says, but her brows are still knit together in bewilderment. They don’t typically drop in on each other like this. “Come in.”

After her talk with Mako that morning, Asami isn’t in the mood to beat around the bush. As soon as she and Korra are comfortably situated in Korra’s room, sitting side by side on her bed, she begins. “I need to tell you two things,” she says, trying to keep her voice and her breathing steady.

“Um, okay?” The look of bafflement hasn’t left Korra’s face yet.

“I like you,” Asami tells her plainly.

“I like you too,” Korra responds immediately. “You’re my best friend.” 

That’s when Asami remembers that, for all her amazing qualities, Korra is a dumbass, and she’s going to have to spell this out even more. “No, I mean, I have feelings for you.”

“Oh,” Korra says, biting her lip, the look of confusion dissipating only to be replaced with something Asami can’t decipher. She is silent for a long time, and with each passing second, Asami grows more anxious.

“I’m sorry if that makes things weird,” Asami says once the silence between them gets to be too much. “Your friendship is more important to me than anything else.”

“It’s not weird at all,” Korra tells her, and some of the tension leaves Asami’s body. “I guess I’m just trying to figure out, um, how  _ you _ like  _ me _ .”

It’s not a rejection, so Asami manages a tiny laugh. “What do you mean?” she asks Korra. “You knew I was into girls.”

“What do I mean?” Korra parrots after her. “You’re, like, a supermodel, and a genius, and all around the perfect woman,” she says, gesturing vaguely at Asami’s form. Asami wonders whether she means ‘perfect’ in a romantic way or if it’s just a really nice, friendly compliment.

Regardless of the meaning behind Korra’s words, she blushes. “Thank you. If it helps, I think the exact same things about you?”

“Oh, wow,” Korra breathes. “I never even entertained the possibility that a girl like you would want to be with someone like me.”

“Okay, where is this low self esteem coming from? That’s not the Korra I know.” She playfully bumps Korra’s shoulder with her own, which gets her a giggle in return.

She shrugs and gives Asami a sad smile. “I don’t know. I guess I’ve just been feeling a little insecure since Mako dumped me out of the blue. I think he and I are better off just as friends, but it still hurts not to know why, and for it to happen right after the first time we were hooking up for real.”

Asami briefly thinks about how she wants to fight Mako before reminding herself that she’s heard his perspective now, too. “That brings me to the second thing I have to tell you. I finally have some answers about that,” she informs Korra.

“Really?”

“Korra…” she starts slowly, “There’s a good chance that you and I are soulmates. Mako figured it out, and that’s why he broke things off with you so suddenly.”

“We’re soulmates?” Korra repeats.

“Maybe. Apparently we have similar looking marks in, well, more or less the same location.”

Korra’s eyes grow wide with amused horror. “Oh my god, and Mako figured it out because…” She trails off.

“He’s the only person to see both of us topless?” Asami answers. “Yep.”

Korra begins to laugh so hard that her body is shaking and tears come out of her eyes. Asami watches her process the information, then begins to laugh along with her. She’d been too shocked when Mako first explained the situation to truly appreciate the humor of it. “That’s so ridiculous, but somehow it makes perfect sense,” Korra chokes out once they’ve finally composed themselves enough to speak.

“It’s a little funny, isn’t it?” Asami says.

“It’s extremely funny.”

“I wanted to tell you that I had feelings for you before I dropped the soulmate thing on you, because I know that’s a lot to take in and we haven’t confirmed it yet. I don’t want you to feel obligated to do anything you don’t want to do, especially since I know you just got out of a relationship.” Asami twists her hands in her lap until Korra gently takes her hands in her own, giving them a reassuring squeeze.

“Thanks, Asami,” Korra says.

“That being said, I guess we have a few options. We can ignore this, for now, or for forever, never confirming or denying anything, and just pretend this conversation didn’t happen.”

Korra shakes her head emphatically. “Absolutely not.”

“We could kiss each other right now and get an answer yes or no, and continue accordingly,” Asami says. While the idea of kissing Korra immediately has its merits, she’d personally prefer that their first kiss be done right. Korra looks like she’s considering this. “Or, I could take you out on a nice date and we can just see what happens from there.”

“I like option three,” Korra says, beaming. “But on our date, you have to wear that velvet dress you bought when we went thrifting that one time. The one that you look really hot in.”

Asami knows exactly which dress Korra is talking about, and the fact that Korra both said yes to a date and has  _ opinions _ on what Asami should wear on it sends a shiver down her spine. “I look hot in everything,” she says, trying to deflect from the pleased embarrassment she’s feeling.

“Can’t argue with that,” Korra agrees, throwing her arms around Asami to bring them both down on the bed. They cuddle into each other for a few moments, Asami’s head nestled in the crook of Korra’s shoulder. “Asami?” Korra says after a while.

“Yeah?”

“I’m really glad you’re my maybe-soulmate.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading! Depending on whether there's interest, I may or may not write a followup with Asami and Korra playing matchmaker for Mako.


End file.
